Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) - Returning to a state that has become unexpectedly competitive for him, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sought to straddle a fraught political line at a Michigan rally that seemed more like a homecoming on Wednesday.

At a campaign rally of several hundred in Grand Rapids, Romney defended his 2008 opposition to the federal bailout of American automakers and took on other sacred cows of the trade unions powerful in local politics.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama's shift on the thorny issue of contraception insurance coverage announced last week was no compromise at all, congressional opponents said Wednesday.

The president is "using the strong arm of government to force all Americans to pay for drugs and procedures that may violate" their religious beliefs and rights, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Nebraska, said during a Capitol Hill news conference.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - The war of commercials from the presidential campaigns and various super PACs supporting candidates is expected to intensify in the coming days and to greatly expand in its scope.

Mitt Romney's campaign has now bought almost $1.2 million in ad time in Michigan, a source who tracks media buys told CNN. So far the campaign has up a positive spot in the state where the candidate talks about his Michigan roots. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding its ad strategy.FULL POST

San Francisco, California (CNN) - Newt Gingrich will be joined by another Georgia political heavyweight when he travels to that state later this week.

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond confirms that businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain will campaign with the former Georgia congressman Saturday. There will be a rally in Cobb County Saturday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Gingrich holds two town halls in Forsyth and Gwinnett counties. He will kick off his visit with a rally in Peachtree City Friday evening.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - America’s Catholic bishops have criticized the White House’s mandate for insurers to provide free contraception coverage to employees, but plenty of other Catholic groups have endorsed the plan – some taking swipes at the bishops in the process.

“The Catholic bishops and their allies in the Republican Party are increasingly isolated,” James Salt, executive director of a liberal group called Catholics United, said in a statement over the weekend supporting the White House’s contraception rule.

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama's approval rating is back to 50% for the first time in more than eight months, and he currently holds an edge against all the remaining Republican presidential candidates in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups, according to a new national survey.

And a CNN/ORC International Poll released Wednesday also indicates that the GOP's advantage on enthusiasm has been erased, and that the number of Americans who think things are going well in the country is on the rise. Six out of ten say things are going poorly in the country, but four out of ten say things are going well, up 15 points since November.